According to police, Denver Lee St. Clair's stepson claimed he carried out the playground prank after his stepfather “jumped him”

A former U.S. Marine has been charged with murdering his stepdad – by giving him a wedgie.

Brad Davis, 33, is accused of suffocating Denver St Clair, 58, by pulling the victim’s pants and stretching them over his head and around his neck.

According to statements given to police, the pair began fighting at MrSt Clair’s home after he bad-mouthed his wife, Tressia, who is Davis’s mum.

Officers said Davis told them he punched his stepdad unconscious after the older man “jumped him”.

Davis added that this is when he pulled the elastic of Mr St Clair’s pants up and over his head from behind, a prank known as an “atomic wedgie”.

County Sheriff Mike Booth said: “I’d never seen this before, but when we looked at our victim the waistband of his underwear was around his neck.”

The State Medical Examiner’s office found motorbike fan Mr St Clair died of suffocation and blunt force trauma to the head.

Davis allegedly pulled the elastic so tightly that it left ligature marks around Mr St Clair’s neck.

According to authorities, Davis said he had been invited for drinks at the home of his mum and stepdad in McLoud, Oklahoma.

Davis said things turned ugly after a night of boozing.

He told police he acted in self-defence but the death on December 21 has been ruled as murder and Davis was charged on Tuesday.

Investigators think that before Davis called the emergency services he altered the crime scene to make it look like the pair had been brawling.

Sheriff Booth said: “We continued our investigation and uncovered evidence that led us to believe that this was more than just a fight.”

Victim: Denver Lee St Clair

Court documents show that Tressia, who was in hospital having a hip op at the time of the killing, told police that her son lived nearby in a trailer house owned by her and her husband.

She said Mr St Clair thought his stepson owed him £4,000 for staying there. Davis’s brother told police that on December 20, Mr St Clair said he was going to “pull Brad out of that trailer by his throat”.

It has also emerged that a restraining order was placed on Mr St Clair in 2008 after a complaint from his wife. She claimed he had grabbed her by the neck and hurled her through a bathroom door.

Court records show Mr St Clair filed for divorce four months ago. It was the third time the couple began divorce proceedings. The first two cases – filed by Tressia in 2004 and 2010 – were dismissed.

On a Facebook page set up to remember Mr St Clair, his daughter Carol St Clair said he was a “one of a kind”, and would be “missed dearly”.